Arf Blog

Organized on October 2nd in London by The Payment Association, the PAY360 Awards celebrate companies that push technological boundaries in the payments industry. Arf’s Silver Award highlights its pioneering efforts to leverage blockchain technology and digital assets to create real-time, on-chain liquidity solutions, driving efficiency and transparency in cross-border payments.

Global money movement is a critical economic driver, yet it remains a cumbersome system of clearinghouses, market-by-market capital requirements, and country-specific regulations. Currently, $4 trillion is locked in treasury accounts, a massive but hidden working capital burden to financial institutions and the global payments industry. In 2023, the companies partnered to solve this problem, with the support of Stellar Development Foundation ZUG, Switzerland, March 6, 2024 – Arf, a global transaction services platform at the intersection of Web3 and traditional finance, announced that it has surpassed $1 billion in onchain liquidity volume to support global payments. This milestone underscores Arf's category-defining leadership with its unique blend of blockchain-powered solutions for global financial institutions.

Onchain liquidity backed by real world asset tokenization helps global financial institutions accelerate cross-border payments ZUG, Switzerland, March 6, 2024 – Arf, a global transaction services platform at the intersection of Web3 and traditional finance, announced that it has surpassed $1 billion in onchain liquidity volume to support global payments. This milestone underscores Arf's category-defining leadership with its unique blend of blockchain-powered solutions for global financial institutions.

RWA tokenization, a process transforming tangible assets into digital tokens on a blockchain, holds the potential for reshaping the financial landscape. This technology, promising broader access to diverse investment opportunities, simultaneously raises concerns about regulatory oversight. Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom are each navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for […]

Tokenization is the process of converting real-world assets (RWAs) into digital tokens that can be traded and transferred on a blockchain. Real-world assets, such as loans backed by collateral, can be represented as a digital token on the blockchain and recorded, transacted, or repaid with clear records and lower costs along the way. This capability […]

The tokenization of assets has the potential to reshape lending, credit, and debt markets fundamentally. Notably, the total value locked in RWAs has nearly doubled in 2023, surging from $1.44 billion to $2.5 billion as of September 30, 2023.1 By bringing these conventional financial activities onto blockchain platforms, tokenization presents a host of advantages, including […]

We are proud to announce that Arf has been listed in FXC Intelligence's “30 Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies” list! Using their industry expertise and data, FXC, a leading provider of cross-border payments data and intelligence has compiled a guide to companies that are worth watching this year, including remittances […]

Arf, the global liquidity and settlement platform, has been awarded the Gold PAY360 Award for “Best Lending Initiative.” Hosted by The Payments Association, The PAY360 Awards took place in London on October 4th, where Arf was honored for its outstanding contributions to the payments industry and its leadership in lending innovation.

Recent regulatory developments reflect increasing confidence in fiat-pegged stablecoins. While regulations had struggled to keep pace with the rapid evolution of cryptocurrencies for some time, the uncertain regulatory landscape did not impede the exponential growth of stablecoins. Some of the world's largest economies have now begun to establish regulatory […]

In today's global economy, the efficient flow of cross-border payments is essential for international trade and financial transactions. However, traditional cross-border [...]

Liquidity pools have revolutionized the way trading and lending occur in DeFi platforms, providing liquidity and facilitating global transactions. Understanding what [...]

ZUG and SAN FRANCISCO, June 21, 2023— Arf, a global liquidity and settlement platform, and Huma Finance, who builds infrastructure for real-world lending, have announced a partnership to introduce the world's first-ever fully transparent on-chain liquidity solution for cross-border payments. The strategic partnership addresses the current liquidity challenges in […]

Global cross-border payments have become increasingly crucial for facilitating global trade and economic development due to the growth of international trade, digital [...]

ZUG and SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 2023— Arf, the Swiss-regulated global settlement banking platform, with support from the Stellar Development Foundation, is now offering the world’s first unsecured, short-term, USDC-based working capital financing solution for licensed financial institutions.

Remittances have always been a major indicator of a country’s economic strength. With the ability to show the connections between citizens and their compatriots, this metric provides a great look into the health of nations.  When people travel abroad - whether to live or just stay temporarily - they eventually need to send money home. […]

Within just a few years, USDC demonstrated its utility as a revolutionary tool for facilitating borderless payments. Its stability, as a result of being pegged to the value of the US [...]

Many believe that decentralized applications (dApps) are the future of the crypto and blockchain space. Thanks to their ability to operate autonomously, these apps provide impressive levels of efficiency and reliability. And although they still have some progress to make before they can become mainstream, dApps are definitely here to stay.  Below, we’ll explain what […]

Smart contracts are the bedrock on which many blockchains operate today. They became prominent thanks to the massive success of the Ethereum blockchain, and today, they are more than important to the overall growth of the industry.  So, what are smart contracts and how do they actually work? We’ll explain everything you need to know […]

ZUG, October 26, 2022—The VQF-regulated global settlement banking platform using Web3 technologies has raised $13m in a seed round with the participation of industry leaders including Circle Ventures, Hard Yaka, United Overseas Bank Venture Management, Signum Capital, and Stellar Development Foundation. Arf has raised $13 million in equity and debt financing in a seed round […]

ZUG, October 6, 2022—The VQF-regulated global settlement banking platform won the Silver PAY360 Award in the “Best Use of Crypto and/or Blockchain in Financial Services” category. The PAY360 winners were announced at the award ceremony in London, on October 5th. Arf, the cross-border settlement banking platform, received the Silver Award in the “Best Use of […]

You may have heard the term Total Value Locked in relation to DeFi before. But what does it mean? And why does it matter to crypto investors? What does it mean? Total Value Locked (TVL) is a metric used to indicate the value of crypto assets locked in smart contracts on any given DeFi platform, […]

CeFi vs DeFi: What Are the Main Differences? The term DeFi, short for “decentralized finance,” is quite the buzzword in the finance sphere these days. It refers to the core concept behind blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, in that financial transactions are conducted peer-to-peer globally, without centralized banks or other such intermediaries. For the uninitiated, CeFi, […]

The cryptocurrency industry has been witnessing a significant increase in activity across the board over the past few years. And while most participants in the market still believe that crypto can be a great way to make money, there are several other crypto-related concepts that have expanded beyond cryptocurrency investing and are now on the […]

ZUG, August 18, 2022—Arf, the global settlement banking platform for licensed money service businesses, announces that it has been granted the approval of the Financial Services Standard Association (VQF) through Arf’s entity in Zug, Switzerland.